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Autumn Leaf Lines with Chalk

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Have you seen the Salt Dough Leaves we created recently? I am loving this season for Autumn crafts and activities. I particularly have been enjoying setting little lap tray activities up for Neve as she arrives home from school. We recently created patterns on leaves using Chalk Markers and today I want to share with you another lovely Autumn activity - tracing the lines in the leaves.

With young children in particular, we often set up tracing activities to help develop fine motor control. Tracing also helps develop hand eye co-ordination. Some children simply don't respond or engage well with pen to paper tasks, which leaves us needing to think outside the box. If a child isn't engaged they are learning nothing. They're not open to whats being taught so have no chance of learning new skills or remembering information.
Whether you let children create marks in paint or shaving cream - these activities all form a great base to develop a child's writing in the future.

Today incorporating the Autumn theme and building on the leaf patterns activity, challenge number two was set -

Once again Neve collected leaves on the way to school, and offered me a bunch as I was kissing her goodbye at her classroom door. I was rather amused at how strange I must have looked holding tightly onto a bunch of leaves all the way home.... but I had an activity to set up.

The black trays worked really well with this activity as it made the beautiful Autumn colours stand out even more.

Not only is this activity great for hand eye co-ordination and building on fine motor skills - its a great calming activity. Depending on the temperature in your setting, leaves may start to dry out quickly and curl up. I don't think the chalk would be as effective on leaves that are dry and crumbling, so you may want to keep a stash in a cool area so you can replace the leaves as needed - depending on the amount of children who may take part in this activity.

Neve insisted to use white on all her leaves and I thought it looked great! It wasn't long before she started asking why the leaves have so many lines in them.

Here are a few questions/facts you may want to explore with your children:

Why do leaves change colour in Autumn?
The stunning golden yellow, deep reds and rich brown shades appear on the leaves in Autumn when the trees have taken all the food they can from the leaves.

Why do leaves have lines in them?
The lines that we see on within a leaf are called veins. Veins offer support to the structure of the leaf and carry water, minerals and food energy to the rest of the plant/tree.Why do leaves fall from the trees?
Leaves fall from the trees as the weather is starting to get cooler and they have stopped making food for the tree. As soon as the leaves have started to fall the trees go into dormancy, which is just like animals going into hibernation. It is during this time that energy, growth and metabolism comes to a halt.

Why on the leaves on a tree important?
Leaves on a tree/plant are a food producing organ and without them the plants/trees would be unable to grow. Trees are vital for our planet. Not only do they produce oxygen that we need to survive, they also store carbon, give wildlife a place to live and provide materials that we use to make tools and create shelter.Why are leaves flat?
Leaves are flat so they can absorb as much sunlight as possible. The leaves turn the sunlight into food for the tree so it can grow big and strong.

The chalk markers were rather therapeutic to use and left lovely trails of solid white marks across the leaf, highlighting their structures.

The leaves looked beautiful altogether. With a close eye and some care - you could look at laminating some of the leaves to help keep them preserved. Do take care if you decide to give this a go however as any thick parts in the leaves may cause them to jam - you may wish to remove these thicker parts before hand.

As out activity came to a close I asked Neve what she would like to learn about Autumn leaves? These questions not only allow Neve to lead her own learning but it gives me an insight to what she wants to find out and I go away and plan hands on learning for her.

I find hands on learning is incredibly successful as children seem to absorb the learning much better - remembering lots of key facts and experiences.